Abasyn Journal of Social Sciences Vol (10), Issue (1...

Abasyn Journal of Social Sciences – Vol (10), Issue (1), 2017.

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The Impact of Internal Marketing on the Organizational

Performance through Organizational culture Mediation

Mohsin Ullah

PhD Scholar, Bahria University Islamabad

Dr. Hafiz Mushtaq Ahmad

Professor, Department of Management Sciences

Bahria University Islamabad

Abstract

There is a lot of debate on the relationship of internal marketing and

performance as well the relationship of organizational culture and performance

but there is no such study which shows the mediating role of organizational

culture on the linkages between internal marketing and organizational

performance. In an attempt to increase the conceptual body of knowledge, the

present study follows a systematic presentation of the mechanism and impact of

internal marketing on the firm performance through mediating role of

organizational culture. Two prominent theories support the current study the

resource based and social exchange theories which are widely used in the

organizational management research.

Keywords: Internal marketing, Organizational culture, Organizational

Performance, Competing Values Framework.

The world is rapidly moving from just organizational to global

business thus creating the diversity in the business as well as the

employees. To maintain the diversity is the need of the global business

and is important for the firm performance (Marinova, J., Plantenga, J., &

Remery, C. 2016) but sometimes this diversity becomes a challenge for

the bigger organizations to achieve its strategic objectives in the global

markets because of the implementation of the unified vision and goal

among the members of their business system (Santhosh, M., & Baral, R.

2015). The employees of the different functional units and of the

different culture work with each other and towards the goals of the

business in an alien way Piercy, N., & Morgan, N. (1991). This creates

the multiplicity of goals and visions among the members of the

organization thus result in the short run and long run failure of the

organizations (Sorge, A. 1982). For this reason the organizations must do

the internal marketing to recruit, educate, motivate and align the

employees of the organization for the required organizational culture and

unified organizational vision and work processes Varey, R. J. 1995;

Fregidou-Malama, M., & Hyder, A. S. 2015). The concept of internal

marketing focuses on the integration of all functions and operations with

mutual trust and coordination among the employees and members of the

organization which will create a market oriented organizational culture

(Morris, M. H., & Pitt, L. F. 1994). This will results the achievement of

customers’ satisfaction and customers’ service to achieve competitive

advantage. However it has been seen that the internal barriers like


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interdependence of departments and communication barriers among

different departments create implications to achieve internal marketing

objectives (Papasolomou-Doukakis, I. 2002).

An important issue in the area of marketing management is

demonstrating the link between internal marketing (IM) and business

success. Although there is sufficient literature available on the concept of

internal marketing (Berry, 1981; Gronroos, 1985; Tansuhaj, Randall, &

McCullough, 1988; George, 1990; Varey, 1995; Varey & Lewis, 1999;

Rafiq & Ahmed, 2000; Lings, 2004; Wieseke, Ahearne, Lam, & Dick,

2009 Lings & Greenley, 2010;), the phenomenon still need considerable

attention because it is not universally accepted as construct or as concept.

(Ferdous, 2013). One of the key features of internal marketing is its link

to the performance of the firms. Researchers for instance Tansuhaj et al.,

(1988) ;Bruhn (2003), Lings, 2004; have worked on linking the internal

marketing and firm performance, generally in the context of services

marketing. However, the processes advocated to date are limited in their

value to firms in terms of indicating exactly how the internal marketing

work on the internal processes (the way of doing thing) of the firm and

leveraging the performance (Ferdous, 2013).

In an endeavour to mitigate the confusion surrounding the

understanding and operationalization of internal marketing as a

construct, and how it is logically linked with competing values

framework and performance, this paper proposes a conceptual integrative

model addressing ‘what’ are the key internal marketing

imperatives/activities and dimensions of culture required by

organizations, and ‘how’ these activities are linked with each other

through organizational culture to achieve business success. Such a model

offers a process for firms desirous of developing a competitive advantage

through the level of success of their business.

The second concern which was identified by Forman & Money

(1995) that have not achieved the attention of the interest of researchers

is to study the fragmented as well as group impact. The concept has a

wide range of application in the field of management for the purpose of

achieving individual, group and most importantly the organizational

objectives; internal marketing is seen as something which the firm does

to its employees as a whole. In fact there are sufficient evidences that

internal marketing is often not performed by the entire organization,

rather by groups, departments or functional division within it, this shows

that internal marketing can be use for the collective objectives of the

organization as well as for a specific group.

This study is supported by resource based view considering the

well trained employees as the human capital and strategic asset, the asset

which is difficult to imitate (Javadin et al. 2012; Mugo Akonkwa, 2016).

The resource based view claims that these resources provide a

competitive advantage, and are prerequisite for the sustainable long term

performance. These resources must have the ability to support the


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organization to attain and sustain the competitive advantage. The

competitive advantage becomes always a challenge to be sustained over

longer time period to the desired level so that the firm is competent

enough to safeguard against all sort of duplication, transfer, and

substitution of resources. Generally, the resource based theory is strongly

supported by researchers of empirical studies.

In addition, social exchange theory developed by Hormans

(1958) which was first explored to know the group behaviour of

members in economic undertakings. This study considers the employees

of the organization as the first customer and the individuals who avail the

service of the firm are the ultimate customer. In both these theories the

differences is the way the players inside and outside of the firm are

perceived. The exchange theory tells us that it is not the individual or the

firm that do exchanges with each other’s but instead it’s the exchange

within the prescribed markets where both the players offers exchanges

(Emerson, 1987, P.11), the theory answers a range of market

characteristics; in contrast to social exchange theory which proposes the

transactional relationship between specific members of the game as “

every actions for a reward has a reciprocal rewarding reactions others

(Blau, 1964, P.91).

Existing research has investigated the relationship of internal

marketing on organizational performance (see: Kanyurhi, & Bugandwa

Mungu Akonkwa, D. (2016); Yu & Barnes (2016); Koo, Kim, & Kim,

(2016); Le Meunier-FitzHugh & Le Meunier-FitzHugh (2017); Although

the limited and indirect but the research is available on how internal

marketing impacts organizational culture (Roknić & First Komen (2015;

Janjua, Ahmad & Afzal (2014); Mahmood (2013); Pizzinatto, Pizzinatto,

Giuliani & Pizzinatto (2016). There is also significant amount of

research that evaluates how organizational culture leads to better

organizational performance (Martinez, Beaulieu, Gibbons, Pronovost &

Wang (2015); Motilewa, Agboola, & Adeniji (2015); Jacobs, Mannion,

Davies, Harrison, Konteh & Walshe (2013) ; Boyce, Nieminen,

Gillespie, Ryan & Denison (2015) ; Wei, Samiee & Lee (2014) ; Awadh

& Alyahya (2013). However, to the best of authors knowledge there is no

research to date that establishes the expected causal chain of relationship

between internal marketing, organizational culture, and organizational

performance. Existing research suggest a causal relationship between

internal marketing, organizational culture, and organizational

performance. The present study suggests that the impact of internal

marketing on organizational performance is not direct. It is however

through organizational culture. Internal marketing can lead to a better

and enhanced organizational culture that would ultimately lead to

enhanced organizational performance.


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Significance of the Study

Organizational culture and internal marketing has been identified

by both academicians and practitioners as imperative for organizational

survival and growth. The findings of the research will add to the

knowledge and understanding of the subject of culture and internal

marketing. Lack of research on the linkage between organizational

culture, internal marketing and organizational performance highlight a

knowledge gap. The present study will add to the existing body of

knowledge and further elucidate the phenomenon and the linkage. The

study may help in generating greater awareness among services sector on

the importance of having better internal marketing techniques, as it

would serve as a vehicle for organizational effectiveness. Additionally

the research can help business to understand the value and potential

contribution of organizational culture and internal marketing in

enhancing organizational performance. The present study provides

significant insight for HR managers in the services sector. The study will

assist HR managers in developing better understanding of organizational

culture and internal marketing.

Internal Marketing Concept

Internal marketing are set of activities which the human resource

department use in organizations to efficiently and effectively motivate,

educate and train their employees to launch better services to customers

(Tsai, 2014). Internal marketing stresses that the success of the external

marketing is dependent on the firm having motivated, satisfied and

innovative employees. Internal marketing used by the firms to uplift their

employees’ competencies to respond to the organizational goals (Seo-

Yoon Jung, Kyeong-Hyo Jung & Jae-Ik Shin 2016). Berry and Gronroos

introduced internal marketing for the first time and it was proposed to the

services industries and the roots of concept of internal marketing was

originated in 1980’s (Barzoki & Ghujali, 2013). In this arena of

competition organizations are trying to improve and increase the quality

and standard of their services. Many researchers are agreed that

organizations have to cater both internal and external customers to

improve the quality. To grow and to sustain the growth organizations

need to pay attention towards both external and internal customers needs

to improve the service quality (Sadeghloo et al., 2014). The major goal

of the concept is that the employees must be obliged as the internal

customers and visualize their value in the organization. It is considered

as milestone for the organization that its employee has a good perception

and to own the organization. Second they must recognize that being

employees they are the internal market as well as internal suppliers

through relational coordination and ultimately fulfil the needs of

colleagues and the organization as well thus creating the competitive

advantage of the organization through serving internal market the

organization and fulfil the needs of the internal customers through


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relational coordination which is the secret of the success for the

organization(Barzoki & Ghujali, 2013).

Internal marketing starts when the organization start to recruit the best

possible employees and to develop them fulfil their personal and

organizational needs so that the employees will give the maximum

output and improved job performance which will gratify the customers

(Sadeghloo et al., 2014). There are two main stakeholders of the concept

internal marketing. First every employee of the organization has their

own internal customer, and that they in reciprocal also have internal

customers. Second employer have some important duties to give

benefits, preserve rights and provide extra rewards for their employees,

which in return give the better performance to the organization overall in

the external market(Gronroos, 1981).

Dimensions of Internal Marketing

Vision

Foreman and Money (1995) suggested three components of

internal marketing that are rewards (rewarding and fairly compensating

employees), development and directing towards a vision. The prime

objective is connected to internal markets and it composed of

investments in human capital so that they feel the ownership of the

company; and that every employee realizes the company vision and its

long term and short term objectives. (Paliaga & Strunje, 2011). Ng et al

(2015) pointed out different components from where the company starts

the internal marketing he (a) recruitment (b) training (c) motivation (d)

communication (e) company vision/goals (f) co-optation.

Reward

Organization encourages that their internal customers

(employees) must be satisfied through lucrative rewards who in return

satisfy the external customer and fulfil their needs and wants

(Haghighikhah et al 2016). Service-based organizations are totally

depending on the relationship with their clients, they have to make strong

relationship and good word of mouth to retain their existing customers

and to demonstrate loyalty. It is obvious that employees who are strongly

committed and satisfied with their jobs they have abilities to manage

clients in a better way, such type of employees are productive and show

their great effort to maintain strong relationship with the employers and

they improve the reputation of their organization as well (Wegge, 2011).

Zeithaml et al. (1988) emphasized that organizations should link the

quality of service with reward so employees work hard to provide good

quality service to their customers. Internal marketing is one strategy

which adopts the reward system that is strongly connected with the

service provider (employee) and the quality of service is purely

associated with the customers (Pantouvakis, 2012). Awwad and Agti

(2011) stated in their study of banking that if the reward is fair then it

creates emotionally more strong and loyal internal customers for the


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organization. There is also Non-financial internal marketing which

include rewards which is non-monetary like recognition, appreciation,

empowerment and some sort of motivational practices given by the

organization to their employees (Haghighikhah et al 2016).

Employee Development

Internal marketing is adopted due to multiple reasons but most

important is that the employee’s awareness is increased. Internal

marketing has main focus on the people who are the part of business and

working inside the business boundaries and on those places where

employee’s satisfaction is needed (Mornay Roberts-Lombard 2010).

There are many studies on internal marketing which state that there is

strong need to develop satisfaction of employees and that employers

should consider job as internal products, their aim should be to develop a

loyal, most skilful and qualified personnel (Zampetakis and Moustakis,

2007). It is desirable and has no substitution if businesses quest for

employees development, cater their emotions, and to develop their best

comprehension capacity (Roberts-Lombard, 2010). There should be

healthy and good relationship between the internal customers and the

management of the organization and there should be emphasis on the

delivery of best products and services and need satisfaction of the

employee. There should be proper management style and system for the

internal training and coaching of the employees that must help and

support the nourishment of an internal environment of business (Mornay

Roberts-Lombard 2010).

P1: There is a significant positive impact of internal marketing on

organizational performance.

Culture

In 1874 one of the renowned anthropologist E. B. Tyler defined

culture as "the complex collection of knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals,

customs, and some other capability and habits a person acquires as a

individual of society. " This definition contains two fundamentals points

the one which distinguishes one group of society from the others and the

other is the idea of the acquired behaviour. Gusfield, J. (2006). A process

of continual framing and reframing of future aspirations and past events,

even as an entrepreneurial journey unfolds over time” (Garud et al.,

2014b, p. 1489). Culture is a “code of many colors” traceable in multiple

registers such as values, stories, frames, toolkits and categories (Giorgi et

al., 2015).The cultural resources involved have ranged from company

and product names (Glynn & Abzug, 2002; Zhao, Ishihara, &

Lounsbury, 2013) to stories about market opportunities, business models,

and future profits (Navis & Glynn, 2010). From this perspective, culture

is conceived as a consequential aspect of any entrepreneurial domain,

and the scholarly focus is whether and how entrepreneurs deploy cultural

resources to legitimate their new ideas and ventures. Culture becomes a


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set or tool kit which provide to the individual a options rather than a

integrated whole which directs the members to behave in the desired way

and directions and the business gurus are the trained to use the culture as

map rather than cultural dopes (Swidler, 1986).” Contemporary

economic sociology has struggled with culture. In spite of the importance

of understanding economics and culture in classical sociological theories,

modern approaches, specifically those concentrating on markets and

market actions, are different. This philosophy of sociology of market

drag the attention to use the culture in the analysis of market and

economic actions by considering culture as something which effects the

market operation or something that constitutes the economic operation(

Levin 2008).

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is combination of shared beliefs, values,

and basic assumptions. As organizations are assumed to solve problems

relating internal integration or external adaptation, So Schneider, B.,

Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2013)define it as a setting in which

newcomers are trained to think and feel proper way irrespective of myths

and stories communicated by people.

Osborne (1996) pointed out that organisation's strategic values

are the rationale for business viability that build and create link between

firm and environment. Williams, S. L. (2002) termed values as a

reflection of organisation culture prevailing within organization.

Organisation culture is dependent on employee’s perception about

organisation and its vision mission and goals thus focusing on a unified

mindset of individuals because organisations are collections of people.

The job descriptions of employees are formulated on the basis of

organization goals cascading from vision mission to departmental level

than individual employee level. Narver and Slater, (1990) described

market orientation culture is key to creating superior customer value

efficiently and effectively. Kroeber and K1uckholm, (1952) and

Smircich, (1983) pioneered the concept of organisational culture in the

field of anthropology. There is no consensus and commonly agreed

definition but still literature defined it so in a variety of different ways.

Sathe, (1983) and Sapienza, (1985) defined it from cognitive components

perspective such as values, beliefs and assumptions, that are individual

characteristics. Deshpande and Webster (1989) and Deshpande, Farley

and Webster (1993) stated that organisations are purposive, the actual

practices and expressed ideas by members are an important manifestation

of the prevailing culture.

The Competing Values Framework

According to (Cameron & Quinn, 1999; Helfrich et al., 2007;

Goodman et al., 2001; Quinn & Kimberly, 1984) the competing values

framework refines and states the complicated nature of organization,


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complex and intricate nature of organizational culture and CVF also

gives insight to taxonomy of some important cultural values that indicate

desired modes and offer structural disposition of operation.

Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1981) initially developed the CVF to clarify the

language used in defining the organizational effectiveness construct in

analysis, development, and design. There are multiple and conflicting

criteria associated with assessing organizational performance and

multiple constituencies will give preference to certain values that differ

according to their organizational perspective and the interests they

represent. The CVF has been used in a variety of organizational research

studies, including those related to leadership roles (Belasen & Frank,

2008), self-managed work teams (Zafft, Adams, & Matkin, 2009),

strategic human resource management (Panayotopoulou, Bourantas, &

Papalexandris, 2003), quality of work life (Goodman, Zammuto, &

Gifford, 2001), and development of voluntary organizations (Crim,

Grabowski, Neher, & Mathiassen, 2011). In addition, investigations into

the psychometric properties of the CVF have demonstrated high validity

and reliability estimates (Lamond, 2003; Shim, Lusch, & Goldsberry,

2002; Vilkinas & Cartan, 2006). There are two dimension of

organizational culture identified through the structure of competing value

framework: one is internal/external focal point and second is

stability/flexibility. These two dimensions further open into four

quadrants which represents Clan (team), Adhocracy (entrepreneurial),

Hierarchical, and Market (rational) cultures. Different nature of cultures

are seen due to these four quadrants

Market (Rational) cultures provides control and firmness and it has

external focal point. These organizations have main focus toward result-

oriented structure, and are mainly concerned with the gain, results and

winning Burton, L. J., & Peachey, J. W. (2014),

Hierarchy (bureaucratic) cultures has high command on internal focal

point, organization are shaped well and formalized having complete rules

and structure (Hartnell et al., 2011, p. 679). For the achievement of stable

and preferable environment efficiency is very important (Cameron ,

2008).

Other two quadrants are very important in culture and need more

attention to focus.

Clan ( Team) cultures contains much focus on flexibility and higher

degree of internal focal point in this culture employees have higher

degree of cohesiveness and these employees have higher intensions to

share their goals. This clan culture is just like family in the organization

and employees work there like member of families and they corporate

with each other and they have very friendly nature. The main

characteristic of clan culture is that they love to work in team like

structure, employees are involved in their work deeply, and they trust

each other in every aspect (Hartnell et al., 2011, p. 679) and also

cooperate with each other and strong commitment of employees with the


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organization (Quinn & Kimberly, 1984; Cameron & Quinn, 2006). This

clan culture is reported as most preferable and liked by people. People

love to work in this environment (Cameron, K. S., Quinn, R. E.,

DeGraff, J., & Thakor, A. V. 2014).

Adhocracy cultures are also flexible just like clan culture but it is

opposite to clan culture in this aspect that it has external focal point.

This type of culture can give tangible results and the key problem areas

of the areas of the customers as well the organization can be identified

through it (Waterman, 1993). Such type of organizational culture is very

beneficial for entrepreneurs and for innovativeness, people are not status

quo and they change according to the external environment demand.

Employees have autonomy and the nature of culture is democratic,

employees have autonomy to make changes. They bring innovativeness

in the organization and mistakes are tolerable and are porn for criticism

and the criticism is perceived constructive (Cameron & Quinn, 2011;

Quinn & Kimberly, 1984; Denison & Spreitzer, 1991).

P2: there is a significant positive impact of internal marketing on

organizational culture.

P2: There is a significant positive impact of culture on organizational

performance.

Organizational Performance

Process:

High performance and valued organizations is one of those

organizations who completely satisfy the demand of its all related

stakeholders. This idea was presented by the model of strategic

constituencies. Many other organizational scholars (Gunby, 2009;

Jensen, 2010; Jun & Shiau, 2012; Salancik, 1984) compiled their

definition of organizational performance in a very different way,

according to them organization represents as a political body that

satisfies different constituencies and have bargaining power. According

to Steers (1976) process model provides evaluators with different

frameworks and structures for analysing the important procedures

causing influencing performance. Balanced scorecard was for the first

time introduced by Kaplan and Norton in 1992 (Kaplan & Norton 1992).

Individual behaviour is very important because it affects the

organizational performance and it is the basic element of the process

model. The model has some important characteristics that it focuses on

movement from organizational-level to the individual-level. There is a

basic logic behind all this shift is that if the employees are satisfied with

the organization then they meet the all objectives of the organization and

they provide the strong support (Martz, 2013).

Financial Performance

Studied emphasises on the highly competent and highly satisfied

personnel who creates customer and market oriented organizational


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culture to boost the economic performance of the services firms. The

basic reason behind the core competence of services firms is to rely on

the trained human resource (Lee 2016; Anand, Gardner, & Morris, 2007;

Leiponen, 2006). Number of authors put emphasis on this point that there

is a strong link between functional level of HRM implementation and

also corporate financial performance. Gascio (1991) and Flamholtz

(1985) also emphasized on this point that the financial returns linked

with the heavy investments in progressive HRM practices are considered

as the generally substantial.

Employee development:

Research shows that there is increased attention towards the upgradation

of the internal marketing activities in an enterprise have a enhanced

impact on the employees satisfaction and thus the firm performance.

(Haghighikhah, 2016). Therefore it is always suggested to the

organizations or service provider firms that they should focus more on

their internal employees so they can satisfy their external customers in a

proper way (Gounaris, 2008). Organizations firstly have to convince

their employees to comprehend and gain satisfaction related to

product/services and the brands they have entitled, so it is obvious when

the internal customers are fully aware of the firm products and develop a

belief in it then they demonstrate best performance to satisfy the external

customers and the ultimate customers of the firm (Varun et al 2015).

Linkage of Internal Marketing, Organizational Culture, and

Organizational Performance:

The aforementioned literature highlights the linkage of IM with

OC and OP. Based on the existing studies a causal chain of relation can

be established between the three variables where OC serves as a

mediating variable, explaining that the influence of IM and OP is through

OC. Mediating role of OC has been widely discussed in management

literature. Shehu & Mahmood 2014) used culture as mediating variable

to study the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and firm

performance.(Mugo et al 2015 ) Used, culture as mediating variable to

find the relationship between management succession and corporate

growth strategy in manufacturing sector. (Gochhayat, J., Giri, V. N., &

Suar, D. 2016) used culture as mediating to study multilevel leadership

and organizational effectiveness in Indian technical education. (Memon,

2014) used culture as mediating to find Effects of Leadership Styles on

Employee Performance.

We can determine internal marketing by the vision and rewards

and development. (Foreman & Money,1995). Organizational

performance and internal marketing have strong linkage which is also

identified by the prior literature. It is overall concept about the internal

marketing that it has strong linkage with the firm performance so that in

order to get satisfaction from the customers, first of all we have to train,

educate and motivate our internal customers, in return they can fulfil the


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goals of the organization. There are positive results for the firm

employees by putting some effort in the development of internal

marketing (Lings & Greenley, 2010). In order to gain the better results

and to enhance the performance of the company it is important to

improve the internal association between the functions, departments and

their employees within the organization (Turkoz & Akyol, 2008). Tsai

and Tang (2008) said that if organizations want to improve their

performance then it’s their foremost responsibility to treat their

employees as the internal customers, this will give empowerment and

courage to the employees to provide their best service to the external

customers.

In addition to that some authors also said that internal marketing

have great role in creating the conducive and strong organizational

culture. Internal marketing can also improve the behaviours of the

customers and also polish their attitude which is considered as the crucial

factor (Reza, Javadin, Rayej, Yazdani, Estiri, & Aghamiri, 2012). The

basic purpose of the internal marketing is to create the satisfied and

contend employees. This satisfaction and determination is very important

to encourage the frontline employees to embrace the organizational

goals, objectives that will be advantageous for the organization,

employees and for customers as well (Panigyrakis & Theodoridis, 2009).

Service oriented organizations took benefit from the internal marketing

by reducing conflicts, by encouraging inter-functional communication

and also helps the organizations to shape the market- oriented culture

(Tsai et al., 2012). In previous literature it is not explicitly discussed

about the link of internal marketing and organizational culture, but it can

significantly help to foster the organizational culture by the internal

marketing. It can also affect the behaviours of workforce which is very

important for the development of the organizational culture.

Organizational culture is considered as the backbone on which

organizational performance is based. According to (Jacobs et al., 2013)

there is a strong relationship between the performance of organization

with the strong culture of the senior and upper management team within

English hospitals. There was a noted variation in culture of organization

over a different span of time but also it is observed in different hospitals.

There is a proof exist in literature relevant to the organization

performance and its culture within the hospitals which is considered as

the important public sector. Prior literature of the organizational culture

put emphasis on this point that organizational culture is very important

and effective for the performance of the firm. Xenikou and Simosi

(2006) study suggests that in Greece financial organization found only

two out of the four major cultural characteristics had a strong impact on

the financial performance of the firm. Ginevičius and Vaitkūnaite (2006)

emphasized culture of the organization identified by participation and

cooperation definitely effects the performance of the culture. Kotter

(2012) also pointed out that organizational culture has some positive


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potential to refine the employee sense of problem solving, employee job

satisfaction and through this they can improve organizational

performance.

P 5: Organizational culture mediates the relation between internal

marketing and organizational Performance.

Proposed Conceptual Model

Internal marketing will create the market oriented culture and

will therefore affect the firm performance positively. There are numerous

studies which shows the relation between the internal marketing and firm

performance but the mediating role of the organizational culture is least

noticed. Thus the mediation of culture will enhance the impact of

internal marketing on performance. The propose model would further

help in exploring how internal marketing initiatives can help foster an

organizational culture that ultimately leads to improvement in

organizational performance. This model will help in improving the

dimensions of human resource practices by suggesting new ways of

human and service development through culture improvement thus

enhancing the performance.

In the theoretical framework the relationship is proved from the

literature. This study add to the existing literature on the relationship of

internal marketing to firm performance through mediation of culture.

Different studies have proved the role of culture as mediation

(Gochhayat, 2016; Mugo et al, 2015; Shehu & Mahmood, 2014; Memon,

2014). The relationship of internal marketing and culture was studied by

(Pizzinatto, A. K., Pizzinatto, N. K., Giuliani, A. C., & Pizzinatto, N. K.

(2016); Proctor, 2010; Hogg et al., 2010; Giannopoulos, A. A., &

Avlonitis, G. J. (2014); Shiu & wei yu, 2010). Similarly the impact of

organization culture and organizational performance was also studied by

different researchers and a linear relationship was found (Martinez, E.

A., Beaulieu, N., Gibbons, R., Pronovost, P., & Wang, T. (2015).;

Dadzie et al., 2012; Jacobs, R., Mannion, R., Davies, H. T., Harrison, S.,

Konteh, F., & Walshe, K. (2013). Shiu Agbényiga, 2011; Shiu & wei

yu, 2010). The three dimensions of the internal marketing were used by

Forman and Money (1995) and culture dimensions are proved from

(Helfrich 2007 ). Tsang (2016) used three dimensions of performance

financial performance, process and people development for

measurement.

http://www.tandfonline.com/author/Dadzie%2C+Charlene+A

http://www.tandfonline.com/author/Agb%C3%A9nyiga%2C+DeBrenna+L


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Discussion

In today’s fast and competitive world, motivating employees and

uplifting positive behaviours and catering their need have become a

major challenge before organizations. On the basis of the review of

literature, this study has proposed a conceptual framework and

formulated certain propositions which aim to provide insights to

managers to enhance positive employee attitudes and behaviours through

internal marketing. Although a lot of research has been done to find out

the impact of internal marketing activities, there still exist a lot of

research gaps that need to be addressed. One important point is to look

into the mechanism of internal marketing which through organizational

culture improve the performance of the organization. This study

discovers internal marketing initiatives twist asymmetric and less

engaged behaviour into positive employee attitudes and behaviours. The

research implications of this article are discussed below.

Research Implications

The conceptual framework provides many significant

propositions that need further empirical scrutiny. Future research is

required in order to test the model using a questionnaire survey among

employees of the telecom sector. The framework developed here shows

that by initiating the internal marketing activities will impact the positive

and congenial organizational culture which in turns enhances the co

relational among the employees as well as improve the trust in the

organization Yu, T. W. et al,(2010). This study guides us that with the

internal marketing initiative the vision of the organization is properly

communicated thus an enhanced focus on the short and long term goals

is achieved ( Rafeei & Rafeei 2014). Further suggest that through the

transparent and well designed reward system the employees are tuned

energized for day to day activities and for the further learning about the

system and process of the organization Sadeghloo, M., Nodeh, Z. H., &

Rajabloo, R (2014). A well designed and minutely configured

information system may be developed to have a close check on the

process, culture and human development of the organization. This study

also explores the mediating effect of organizational culture which draws

Process

Organizati

onal

Culture

Market Clan Hierarchy

Reward

Develop

ment

Vision

Internal

Marketing Firms

Performance

Adhocracy

Employee

Development

Financial

Performance


142

the attentions of many practitioners. The most important contribution of

this framework is identification of culture typology that effects the

organizational performance in different environmental circumstances.

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